While the San Francisco 49ers had to dig deep on the depth chart at linebacker last season, thanks to all of the injuries, this season has been a nice reprieve from that.
Fred Warner is back after his season-ending ankle injury and looks as dominant as ever, and Dre Greenlaw, despite a foolish head-butt (is there ever a wise head-butt?) against the Seattle Seahawks, has played in every game he’s been eligible for.
That means some names we got used to last year have not been a factor thus far.
This includes Tatum Bethune, who did a nice job filling in for Warner last season but has only been active for one game this season, and that was against the Washington Commanders on Monday.
Bethune hasn’t been hurt or anything, the Niners have just gone with other backup linebackers on the active roster like Garret Wallow and Luke Gifford. But with Greenlaw and Wallow out on Monday night, Bethune was activated.
Still, he didn’t take a single defensive snap and was limited to special teams duty.
What's going on with 49ers LB Tatum Bethune?
It's a little surprising since one would think Bethune and Warner would make for a decent linebacker duo, but Matt Barrows of The Athletic explained why Bethune didn’t get any action on defense in a recent article.
“The 49ers clearly see Bethune as a middle linebacker and not someone who excels at the weak and strongside roles,” Barrows wrote.
So, essentially, Bethune isn’t going to play unless Warner gets hurt like last season. It’s true the MIKE linebacker position is different than the role Greenlaw plays, since the middle linebacker is the leader of the defense, so it makes sense why they only want Bethune playing that role.
Still, one can’t help but feel a little bad for Bethune because he played well enough last season to prove he can be a solid NFL linebacker, but he may not get another shot at regular playing time unless he goes to another team.
This is especially true since rookie Jaden Dugger has proved adept at playing linebacker and as a defensive lineman at times, so he just provides more versatility, and it makes more sense to have him out there than it does Bethune or Nick Martin.
Maybe Bethune will get another shot, but that means Warner would be hurt, which would be disastrous for San Francisco.
Bethune may not be playing much now, but with all the injuries the 49ers deal with, he may have to step up yet again at some point this season.
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